The present invention relates to automatic call directors and, in particular, to accessories for maintaining first in first out call processing across a number of automatic call directors.
Automatic call directors (ACDs) and their more simple-minded cousins, private branch exchanges, are used to connect callers with agents and other resources (e.g., modems, facsimile machines, voice mail, etc.). The typical ACD connects callers with resources until all resources are in use. At that point, further callers are placed in a hold queue until a resource becomes available. Normally the first in this hold queue will be the first out of the queue (i.e., a first in first out (FIFO) queue).
Current ACDs are designed to handle callers in the described manner. A caller waits in the queue until a resource is available and is removed from the queue upon being connected to a resource. If the caller is returned to the queue for some reason the callers will be added to the end of the queue. For example, ACDs manufactured by Lucent, Siemens, and Nortel operate in this manner.
Increasingly there are resources that may be thought of as secondary resources, not the reason for the call, but a resource that the caller may be connected to prior to being connected to the desired primary resource.
Resources that may be classified as secondary resources include voice mail (for voice mail independent of the main call (e.g., expressing an opinion of the calling experience while waiting for the primary resource)); information on demand systems, that provide prerecorded information on topics chosen by the caller while waiting; or non-agent telephones (e.g., calling a particular party on an ancillary matter while waiting for the primary resource).
Another secondary resource is an automatic call back system. These systems take a call on hold, obtain call back information and calls back the caller at some future time. Such a system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,227,884 and is incorporated herein by reference.
ACDs available today do not permit a caller's place to be maintained in the hold queue while accessing these secondary resources. When the caller is connected to the secondary resource, the caller's place in the queue is released. Upon being released from the secondary resource, the caller goes to the end of the line in the hold queue for the primary resource. The caller's queue status has been lost.
As taught in U.S. Pat. No. 6,754,334, also incorporated herein by reference, it is possible to add an accessory device to an ACD to provide enhanced queue management of the ACD's internal queue.
This solves many performance problems associated with single ACDs, but it is increasingly common for multiple ACDs to be linked together into networks of call centers. These networks may extend to locations scattered about the globe. In these situations, it becomes desirable to be able to manage resources on a network-wide basis. For example, if a call is placed into a call back system on one ACD, it would be useful if the call back could occur at the desired call back time on whatever ACD is then currently the least busy. Unfortunately, present networks of ACDs do not allow for this sort of network-wide management of resource queues.